Dotcom promises 'press conference like no other'

Kim Dotcom. Photo / Neville Marriner

Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has invited media to "a press conference like no other" to promote the launch of his new file sharing website.

Set to launch on January 20, the site will be called Mega - replacing Megaupload, which was shut down after police swooped on Dotcom's mansion outside Auckland in January.

"Expect a press conference like no other. You know me. I can't do small," Dotcom said via his Twitter account.

The site is hosted on mega.co.nz after an earlier address - me.ga - was suspended by the African country hosting it.

The "ga" suffix stands for Gabon, the former French colony now a republic of 1.6 million people.

The me.ga site had been up for less than a week when the Gabon government said it was suspending the site to "protect intellectual property rights" and "fight cyber crime effectively", the phys.org website reported.

Dotcom, a German national who holds New Zealand residency, faces an extradition hearing in March. A New Zealand court has ruled the January raid and seizure were unlawful, and the nation's spy agency was found to have spied illegally on Dotcom.